The rise of the Internet has facilitated easy access to information for millions of people. Some website publishers freely publish their content to increase the number of visitors to their respective websites. For example, some news organizations freely provide news coverage to visitors of their respective websites; and some entertainment related websites freely provide entertainment articles and stories to visitors of their respective websites; etc.
To generate revenue, these publishers sell space (e.g. to be populated with sponsored content (e.g., advertising)) on their websites to derive income. For example, in a sponsored content syndication model, advertisers can extend their marketing reach by distributing sponsored content to publishers. The publishers can place advertisers' text, video or image advertisements on web pages that have content related to the sponsored content. As the users are likely interested in the particular content on the publisher webpage, they may also be interested in the product or service featured in the sponsored content. Accordingly, such targeted sponsored content placement can help drive online customers to the advertiser's website, which, in turn, can generate revenue for the publishers.
One service that publishers can include in a website is online map service. Some of these conventional services provide maps that are very sophisticated and allow users to view traditional street maps, street maps including representations of the actual buildings, and even satellite images.